Melior Pharmaceuticals, an Exton-based company that specializes in repositioning old medicines for new uses, has been given the green light by the FDA to start human testing of a potential COVID-19 therapy, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Melior Pharmaceuticals and its sister company, Melior Discovery, want to develop tolimidone as a treatment that may mitigate the occurrence, as well as the severity of, pulmonary complications tied to COVID-19 infections. The company has so far received promising results from preclinical studies in animal models.

“We are very proud of the fact that in less than a year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, we developed and tested hypotheses, discovered a therapeutic candidate, and have progressed with what is a truly innovative therapy,” said Andrew Reaume, CEO of Melior Pharmaceuticals. “Tolimidone holds promise as a novel form of therapy for a number of other pulmonary-related diseases beyond COVID-19.”

The company will test tolimidone on 236 subjects who were recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and present early symptoms but are not hospitalized. The medicine will be taken as a pill once a day.

Read more about Melior in the Philadelphia Business Journal here.